I would definitely shop around. I visited 3 slab yards last Saturday and all of them told me the prices of each slab I was looking at. They could not tell me the fabrication charge, as my fabricator would tell me the final cost. It seems like a lot of work to me for them to have to ship a slab to your fabricator and then have to ship it back when you don't want it.

Yes, Blue Pearl is one of the higher levels. I was looking at it as well.

Good luck!
Robyn

There was no secret on pricing at any granite yard we visited. No secret on fabrication either (wasn't fabricated at place we bought the stone).

At my local granite yard, all slabs have tags indicating their sq. ft. price. Actually two prices, a lower one if you have them fabricate and install it, and a higher one if you just buy the slab and take it elsewhere for fabrication. Since I bought half a slab, I needed to get an exact price from the estimator, but it was in the ballpark.

It was easy to walk around and have a pretty good idea of what my slab would cost.

oicu812:

The pricing is insane because the competition between granite fabricators is insane.

My experience is close to yours with secrecy. Two yards had no pricing anywhere and they wouldn't tell us anything- had to get prices from the fabricator only. The other place had a mysterious "A" to "Z" pricing label on each slab. "Z" being most expensive. We priced out a slab of "W" and that was about 5-6K for a 99 long counter depth wet bar plus a 7foot long 42" deep island. Stunning slab they called "Sandy Cove" but too much for our budget.

Our kitchen island was somewhere in the middle, maybe a "P" and that priced out around 3500 and we are using the entire slab.

We originally considered Blue Pearl, were told that it was a level C (levels a-d). Mid/low priced because it is relatively common and also has very little movement and drama...our stoneyard did the fabrication, so we didn't have the extra person to pay...they came highly recommended - *everyone* in Western WA knows this stoneyard/fabricator, so we felt good about the price/quality, etc. Might help if you could ask around your area for a place that will treat you right?

We had both experiences when shopping for granite. If we were interested in a slab from a yard that also happened to be a fabricator, they would give us the retail price on the spot. However, if we picked a slab from a yard that did not also fabricate, then we had to wait for them to give the wholesale price to the fabricator, who would then mark it up and give the retail price to us. Usually, when you buy something in a store you are not privy to the wholesale price. With granite, because it's big and hard to move, the only place you can see it is at the wholesaler who then works with the retailer to get the price and then the product to you.

They are very open about pricing here and competitive. Prices have come down recent years.

Shop around. Ask why they can't be more informative if you continue to run into the evasiveness.

We looked at granite four years ago. We decided we loved the kind the builder had in his his model so looked for it. Turns out the granite suppliers in the area only sold wholesale to the fabricators. The fabricator had given a price per sqft to the builder which the builder shared with us. The wholesaler was able to give a comparison of high/lower to that particular kind of granite.

What bugged me about granite is that the fabricator owns your slab of granite. Any leftover pieces still belong to the fabricator. My neighbor used one piece of granite for the surround his tub. The fabricator kept that big piece that was cut out for the actual tub. I had a cutout for my kitchen sink. I would have loved to have kept that and use it on an end table.

Whether the fabricator keeps the slab or not depends on how you bought it. If you pay by the square foot then, yes, they will keep the rest of the slab that wasn't used. If you buy the whole slab intact, then you have the right to every inch of the whole slab.

We didn't buy the slab. We only got to pick it out. The wholesaler only sold to the fabricator. The fabricator owned the slab the entire time. The fabricator sold us a finished piece and installed it. I mentioned it because I would have thought the entire slab was mine.

Was that price with tax, installation, cutouts, edges and any other giveaways such as free sink or free edge upgrade, free template, or 15 year sealer? $7000 would be about 77 a square foot but if that includes cutouts which are typically $150 per each plus any edge upgrades or sealer, tax and template it may be more in the $55-60 range. Black Galaxy is in the level 2 range around here but blue pearl was not listed. I found it on other sites at level 3 and 4. Was it 2 cm or 3 cm? I'm assuming it was 3 cm. 90 square feet is a pretty large amount. We paid $5300 for everything including upgraded edge, 15 year sealer and cutouts for 78 square feet, we supplied our own sink.

Look for yards that have their own fabrication shop. They all price/break down the work differently, so make sure all the details of what you want are defined to get to the real, final price. Otherwise you could get hit with surprises.

But when you go to a restaurant, the price for the steak and salad are on the menu. You don't have to go to the farmers market and look around and guess at what you might be able to afford and then go to the restaurant only to find you can't afford the steak after all.

Sorry I haven't ever shopped seriously for granite slabs so I don't have any great personal knowledge to offer. The process seems to vary by geographic area and shop from the posts I have seen here. When we remodeled our last kitchen we browsed some stone places and they did have prices--the model where we lived then seemed to be that places were both suppliers of stone and fabricators. We ended up going with butcher block though so never completed a transaction. I would try to ask around and see if I could find a place where the pricing was easier for me to understand because I would hate both wasting my time and getting my hopes up only to find something I wanted was not in my budget.

crl you are so right on that farmers market analogy!
where i live, the stone yards are also the fabricators. the place i went with charges per sq ft which is also how all the others charged. the pieces of a slab that customer didn't use, they sell as remnants. except i can't imagine a sink cutout would be large enough to use for anything.
the way anyone can get an idea of price range for granite is to go on home depots countertop calculator online or to their store. they don't have every stone out there but they will have a lot. they were cheaper than any fabricator in my area so keep in mind you may pay more than the hd price but it is a great starting point.

In the northeast blue pearl is cheaper than solid surface. Supply (and therefore cost) will vary in different regions of the US, but it sounds as though you need to shop around more.

Good luck.

Yeah, I don't play those games. I want to know what something costs and if I have to jump through hoops to get a price, I am going elsewhere. I have walked away from several car dealerships because they insisted on playing games. Same thing with purchasing our house, we put in our very best price offer with 24 hour response time, take it or leave it.

I purchased my granite slab directly from the stone yard, I owned the slab. I chose a fabricator and was quoted a price per square foot for fabrication, no extras for cut-outs, etc. There are other stone yards in our area that won't give a price to the consumer, I chose not to deal with them.

I am a fabricator;

slab pricing can be confusing because every slab supplier has their own price schedule with different codes and a different number of divisions. for example, supplier 1 might have 5 levels A,B,C,D,E. the guy down the road might have 7 levels 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. now add in that the price can be different for the same stone depending on what they paid for it and what their mark-up is.

add also that one suppliers slabs might be 52 sq. ft. and anothers slabs in the same color could be 65 sq. ft. which is 25% more stone per slab.

This confusion, plus the considerable issue with the homeopwner not seeing stone attributes at the slab place that they may find objectionable in their countertops, is why we recommend to our clients that they let us accompany them to pick their stone. we just had a recent job where the stone was picked by a designer and 7 of 9 slabs the designer picked had to be rejected.

good fabricator can and should be an invaluable asset to someone selecting stone. there are just too many variables.

Stray question - hope this isn't too much OT: our stoneyard/fabricator left the sink cut out with us after he installed our counters. Our sink is a single, about 22 inches across, so that scrap could be turned into something like a trivet. Has anyone ever done that as a DIY project? Or should we just toss the piece?

In my experience granite pricing has followed the fundamental economic rule of supply and demand. I have done two kitchens over the past ten years, and put granite in both. I found that when a certain color or type of slab was hard to come by, the price was higher - it had nothing to do with the hardness of the stone or the quality of the stone. If there was lots of slabs of that stone, then the price was lower. Clearly the availability can vary by region, so, e.g., Blue Pearl here might be easy to come by, and not so expensive, but in another location it would be hard to get and therefore become expensive.

Also, at least in this region (and I agree with the posters who mentioned that how granite is priced, sold and fabricated varies by region), you buy the entire slab no matter what. This is a pain if you just want to install, say, a small bathroom counter - in that case you hope to find a remnant at the stone yard. For a kitchen, you buy the entire slab, and if there's any left over, you own that. For me, the pieces left over were just something I didn't know what to do with, and where would I put those pieces until I found something to do with them (it would turn into one more on my to-do list, like all the stuff in my house I will sell on eBay one day haha). The fabricator asked me what I wanted to do with them, and I told him to keep them, rather than clutter my garage with them. Perhaps someone just needing a small counter or nightstand top could make use of them.

To the OP - when you said "We were advised to visit a local stone importer/wholesaler to pick out the stone we want for our new kitchen", I am always wary of those "recommendations". I would visit at least two other stone yards that you've found on your own. See whether there is a better selection of stones, better prices, and better customer service. I bet you will find them. You could also post a new thread on this forum, "Please recommend a stone yard near [X] city/location."

This post was edited by Sahmmy on Sun, Apr 27, 14 at 11:23

Gladys - I didn't end up with a piece of granite so I didn't get to try my hand at seeing what I could do with it. I think you could look up finishing techniques on the internet. I was going to go for a rough edge look so I didn't have to have perfection. I think I probably could have gotten that with a hammer and chisel. I would have done more research before I actually tried anything.

Pricing was on the slab when we were in San Antonio.

Here in Charleston AGM has them set up by level. Depends on where you are, I guess.

hollysprings: I understand your point, but at least with the steak and salad, I know the relative cost from having been to a supermarket. I know I could get a steak for $10 and cook it myself, or I could let someone else cook it, serve it, and clean up afterwards and happily pay $30.

oldryder: Thanks for speaking up, being in the biz I value your input. I guess what I take issue with is the discrepancy in the pricing message. The stone importer said the "yellow" stickers were one of the bottom two price levels. The fabricator said those same stones were "top tier" price levels. Makes it extremely hard to stay in a budget without knowing the prices, and having to go to two different places in opposite directions (30+ mins from my home in opposite directions between stone yard and fab shop) Are some stones harder to work with than others?? Could something have a low material cost but a high labor cost?

I guess also it'd be nice if the pricing structure, even ballpark, was more transparent. Like if the stone yard said the price of each slab was $xxx, then each fabricator said fabrication costs $xxx for cuts, $yyy for edges, $zzz for cutouts, plus $nnn for transportation. Then a consumer would at least have an idea of how to shop in a target price range.

We're basically wasting entire days at a time. Any we're not people with abundant free time. (who really is?) 2 or 3 hours looking at slabs, then a drive up to the fabricator for another hour to get a quote. Find out it's $xxx over our target limit. Now we have to repeat the process. We're not the type to easily tolerate inefficiency.

Sahmmy:I started by Googling stone yards in my area (north of Boston) and there's not much to choose from (at least according to Google.) There's one 30 mins NE of me, one 45 mins south, and one an hour north. There's a few fabricators that maintain a bit of stock in the most popular slabs. Hard to find an all-in-one shop that has a good selection of stones. To those New Englanders here, I know of Haverhill, Norwood, Woburn, and Northwoods. Any other I should hit?

Thanks all.

There are many ways for a fabricator to price granite jobs. Unfortunately the buying public may not understand this. It can get fairly complicated trying to explain the differences. Stone is natural product that comes from many processors in all parts of the world and there are no standard slab sizes or quality. Layouts are a huge factor as well as slab sizes, stone veining and direction and fabrication options. Many stone yards are wholesale only to fabricators and will not divulge wholesale pricing to the public.
The fabricator is the one to price the job and he needs, stone type, slab size, layout, dimensions and desired options before he can do that.

Same issues here ... multiple ranges with no clue of $/sf for each range and often the fabricator has their own codes. Part of the fabricator's costing has to be the complexity of the job: cutouts, corners, L-shapes, hard to handle stones, stones that chew up the bits, etc.

I would like to see some sort of uniform pricing scheme that requires at least a display of a range of $$ for each level.

If I know that level D is $75sf plus fabricating I can adjust up or down depending on budget.

What little granite I bought was from a fabricating yard and they had a worksheet ... kind of stone, size needed, feet of edging needed at $/ft per style, and it was done. They were totally willing to work out the pricing for various edges, different granites, etc.

Within that one granite selection, the finishing options made a huge difference in price. If you have your heart set on Lavender Lolly with a triple ogee edge and can't afford it, decide if it's the edge or the stone you really want. Recalculate with a simpler edge and see what happens.

I got quick and exact quotes when I gave fabricators the exact layout, and specified what kind of thickness, finish, edge, granite pattern and whether or not I wanted seams, cutout for sink and faucet. Those all really affect the cost. No seam meant the difference between 1 slab and 2 in my case, so not sure how the fabricator could have ball-parked a price per square foot.

Exact quotes varied between CAN$3500 and CAN$5500 for my small kitchen, so yeah, shop around. The impression I have is that fabricators are getting deep discounts for quartz - so they are pushing that and get a higher profit margin than with natural stone. The best price I got was from a granite counter specialist.

I did ask for recommendations from the granite slab distributor, but their recommended fabricators were expensive and didn't specialize in granite, so not sure what that was about.

The thing to understand is the the cost of the actual slab is a very small proportion of the overall fabrication cost.

Gladys, yes people do make trivets or cheese trays out of their stone cutouts. You can drill the bottom to attach metal feet, make a wood frame to set it in, or just line the bottom with stick on felt or cork. And you can go creative from there... I've seen these scraps referred to as cutting boards, though. Don't ever use one that way or you'll ruin your knives!

As to shopping for slabs, absolutely take your fabricator if he's available, or your GC, or even a designer (but most designers don't have as much experience and access). I did a little preliminary shopping on my own, but took my GC on the for real buying trips, and thereby had no problem learning exact pricing, and he was in touch with the fabricator as well, so all were agreed.

I did visit a lot of stoneyards, both for myself and with a friend, and here, in one metro area, found all the different kinds of pricing and access that have been expressed in this thread. Most were used to people coming on their own to choose slabs. The one I bought from technically only sells to fabricators, but since they know that it's not the fabricators who actually design the rooms, they do "transactions on behalf of the fabricator". Which means, you go in and buy the slabs, and pay for them at the yard, but it's done with the yard having arranged the sale and the pick up/delivery with the fabricator (i.e., get it out of here now), and the fabricator in charge of paying the sales tax. :) It's a great system at one of the biggest yards with the most variety, and I'm sure it's a model that allows for the greatest sales/profits, while pleasing the consumer by making it so easy. They sell mostly to the trade, but were also very helpful, even when I wandered in near closing time, all by myself.

As to what's top tier and what's bottom, the only way to know is to shop around. Some things could have been mislabelled at the yard, or the yard might have a glut of higher level stones and put some in a lower category to move them, or the fabricator might be trying to jack up the price. When you meet a disconnect like that, the best thing to do is ask, strongly, what's going on, and if you don't feel comfortable with the answer, cancel and move on to the next guy. That's the great thing about competition.

@OICU812 - I'm assuming your Haverhill stone yard was Boston Granite Exchange? I looked there myself when I was granite shopping.

There's also Vector Stone in Lowell, MA. That's where my slab ended up coming from.

My cabinet maker coordinated my granite install for me and provided me with a granite allowance. That allowance was essentially the fabricator's category 1. If something is in stock the fabricator may be willing to work pricing with you to save on delivery from a stone yard.

My fabricator actually had the stone in stock at his location which was handy..even though I tagged it on my first visit, I still took the time to look elsewhere since it was early in my process. Fabricator was happy to show me all the slabs in the color I chose so I could pick the two I liked best. Fabricator and cabinet maker were both present during the layout of the templates. I got to keep both my sink and cooktop cutouts. And if I figure out what to do with them, my fabricator will finish them for me.

I guess what I am saying is I had a very positive granite experience north of Boston. :D

LIke schicksal, I went to both AGM and Vitoria in Charleston and two places in the Savannah area. They all priced their slabs by grade and said the fabricators would give us the price. Different fabricators gave us vastly different prices for the same slabs. You just have to do your homework.

I've had to get pricing on thousands of counters. I simply work with the client looking at slabs on line and samples in studio to come up with a range they are interested in. Send a layout for quote, it is easier for them to give me pricing on several stones at once than several quotes. I always tell them what yard(s) we are looking at and ask for suggestions.
When looking at slabs it's easy for yard to give an idea where it falls relative to what is on the list (there is always a range).

It is easy. Just a after of dealing with "what is".

I only use two fabricators, mostly due to quartz availability but may quote a counter at both.
Neither one is the cheapest. I will not use the cheap places,( too many problems ), sell at the fabricators price settling for a small trade discount, only do counters when doing a kitchen.
If someone wants to play find the nickel and shop fabricators, they are on their own, best wishes, complaints taken elsewhere.

If someone wants to play find the nickel and shop fabricators, they are on their own, best wishes, complaints taken elsewhere.

On the other hand, I used a top-notch shop that did a great job and was about $1500 less than what my KD quoted me for the same thing. Her shop may have hired a top-notch fabricator too, but at my expense!

A lot of kitchen dealers want to mark up the counters like other product, many do very little for it. You may well be right. I sell at the same price as the fabricators I work with.

While they are not the cheapest you won't find big savings from anyone comparable to them for 100 miles, could filing comparable and pricier, could find cheaper. I'm just not willing to risk the cheaper ones for the few percent and be responsible. Wouldn't for my own either. Have worked with a few prior, run into any more since and have seen too many bad jobs.

Actually it's a bit of a relief when someone goes elsewhere. Counters are a loss for time vs money for me but a service we need to provide as part of a project. Just sad when it goes south.

I went to a number of slab yards because I was having trouble with availability of my chosen granite patterns. I ended up finding slabs myself that I was really happy with when the fabricators weren't able to source them. Once I found my slabs at the stoneyard, I simply put a hold on them and they had no problem with my putting them in touch with my chosen fabricator to make arrangements for payment and transportation. Once I gave my fabricator a deposit, he transported the slabs to his shop. I really recommend visiting the stoneyards because the individual slabs vary a lot. Even the guy at the stoneyard had strong preferences among different cuts of the same pattern.

I do not have the impression that that the original poster is trying to nickel and dime anyone or trying to find the cheapest possible source. It reads to me like frustration with the mystery of the pricing and the complicated process.

I would be very frustrated to be told by the slab yard that slabs are in a low pricing tier, then to be told by the fabricator that they are in a high pricing tier. There may well be some explanation for this (selected material is cheap to obtain but difficult to work with) but the process sounds very frustrating. Especially as it chews up a lot of time. And for me, I'd get all excited thinking I had found something we loved and could afford only to be told that it is too expensive.

To the OP:

I am in Boston and have used most of the yards you mentioned over the years, lately I have been dealing with Cumar in Everett ma...they are one of the larger fabricators and also stock many slabs at their location. What is nice about that is they give you the pricing right away, very upfront about everything and they have excellent customer service!

If you would like you could message me and I will give you the contact person that I use.

scpalmetto - Where'd you end up going with? I'm in the market for quartz but haven't picked out a place yet.

To OP - we are in the midwest. Blue pearl was a higher end when we got ours 4 years ago. It was about $4000 for 52 sq ft with an ogee edge and sink cut out (but no free sink). So 7000 for 90 sq ft seems like a decent price to me.

Granite pricing is just as frustrating to KD's who offer it! If you want something beyond just a basic group A, that is. Group A's are the only ones that my fabricator will absorb the waste factor on and not charge for the entire slab. Those scraps can get sold as vanities or shower benches etc.

For anything else, I can't even get a price on a slab from the wholesale slab yard, even when I accompany my customer. My customer has to go to the yard, pick a dozen "possibles" and then they give me the list, and I give the list to my fabricator along with the diagram of the space, and then he gets back to me with quotes for the various granites that include all of the needed cuts and accessories.

I charge very little markup, and frankly, it's almost more trouble than it's worth to provide stone. What my client gets for that markup is suggestions as to what slabs might work, or in person suggestions if they need that level of assistance, and then I coordinate the install of the stone with the install of the cabinets. I only use one fabricator for 90% of my stone products, and I've personally vetted their abilities and customer service, so that's part of what they are paying for with the little bit of markup. Assurance. They don't have to worry about poor seams, or a sink reveal that's crooked. My guys do a good job, every time.

And they don't do retail at all. They only work for local cabinet companies or builders. You couldn't buy granite from them at all if you walked in off the street. They don't want that headache. They get prescreened customers that have had all of the ins and outs of the job communicated to them, and know what is reasonable to expect from a basic job, or an upgraded job with additional features that they want that are not part of a basic install.

The whole process isn't easy to navigate for even pros that do this every day, so thank goodness most of you only do this once or twice in your lifetime, right?

We have used Cumar in Everett as well. We've been very happy with them. They had what we wanted but could also GET us what we wanted (we have 2 surfaces in the kitchen), and were straightforward about square footage pricing, faucet cutouts, edge detailing, the sink cutout, and installation. Use the directions on their web site to get there, it's a bit oddly located.

I went to several slab yards. I wanted to see the granite because they do vary, especially Blue Pearl. Everywhere I went to look at granite (this was two months ago) had the prices per square foot right on the granite. I was pleased I could just walk around the slab yard and compare stones and prices. Is that not possible?

I was shopping for Blue Pearl since my DH wanted that particular granite. Blue Pearl was not the most expensive. I would say it was moderate in price. 2 slabs (each 66 X 119) were $1,700 and $2,000 more for fabrication.

I guess it will depend on your location, amount needed, availability and demand.

If you can only get a steak at the restaurant, go there FIRST and get a ballpark quote on their entry level (chopped steak) and a mid-range one (Boneless ribeye). THEN go to the farmer's market and see which steak you like the best. Tag it if you really want THAT steak. Then the restaurant will get you pricing on the steak that you liked best.

In my area, my "restaurant" (aka fabricator) also buys "steak" direct. Only about 60 colors.....but that restaurant cuts out the farmers market, which can make it easier and less $ for my customers.

Keep in mind granite is a commodity and prices will fluctuate, which is why it is so difficult for the industry to list firm prices. Granite's price has a LOT to do with how far it must travel, not how beautiful it is. Also, some fabricators or suppliers will buy certain colors in bulk and offer special pricing.

Here is a guideline for pricing (per square foot) on some of the more popular granite colors based on prices now in the Midwest and ONE fabrication shop.

Hope this helps. KOMPY
GROUP A ($49 to 52 per SF)
Azul Platino Bainbrook Brown Blanco Taupe Crema Carmel Giallo Fantasia Rosa Fresca-Peach Purse Tan Brown Uba Tuba Giallo Arctic

GROUP B ($54 to 56 per SF)
Amber Yellow Baltic Brown Black Pearl
Amarillo Boreal Coffee Brown Desert Brown
Giallo Fiorito Giallo Ornamental Kashmir White
New Venetian Gold Peacock Green Rosewood
Santa Cecelia Sapphire Blue Steel Gray
Tropic Brown Verde Butterfly Verde Jade

GROUP C ($63 to 68 per SF)
Butterfly Gold Carrara White Marble Giallo Napoleon Giallo Veneziano Giallo Vicenza Impala Black Madura Gold Typhoon Green Vyara Juparana

GROUP D ($70 to 76 per SF)
Absolute Black (Prem.) Bianco Antico Black Galaxy Blue Pearl Emerald Pearl Imperial Coffee Santa Fe Brown Volga Blue White Springs

GROUP E ($73 to 78 per SF)
Brown Antique Crema Bordeaux Juparana Delicatus Juparana Persia Solaris Yellow River

GROUP F ($79 to 84 per SF)
Donna Sandra Golden Beach Juparana Beach Labrador Antique Red Dragon Star Beach Typhoon Bordeaux

GROUP G ($84 to 89 per SF)
Persa Spectrus

Ballpark prices above do not include labor charges such as: range/cooktop cutouts, polished sink cutouts and template/delivery fees. Average fees per job typically add up to $400-$500. For an 18g stainless steel sink, add $150+ or purchase your own.

It is currently a problem for us as the granite was part of our overall contract for kitchen remodel, with it going through a sub contractor/fabricator. The prices I am being quoted for the granite I like are $20.00 a square foot more than the local granite showrooms where they do their own fabrication. A granite allowance was built into the contract for a level 1 granite, with us paying the difference for any upgrade.

It is very secretive here in the Houston area although yards abound because of the ship channel and the building boom here. I am getting 4 bids and so far, the variation is 2-4k. Interesting- because I've sourced what we want last week, and I got a bid for White Macaubus from a fabricator who may not have found a source for it- since it is scarce right now. Happily, my ship is coming in (literally) and more WM is set to arrive at the big yard next week from overseas. I am not enjoying this process. There are a lot of variables involved which include color variation, veining and perimeter compatability. Then, the personality of the fabricator comes into play as well. I am leaning towards the more expensive bid right now because they were professional and prompt with my bid.

oicu812- did you try Elemar North Boston (in Lowell)? I used Elemar New England in New Haven, CT- its a huge granite yard that supplies the fabricators. They have the slabs in color codes so you understand the 'levels'. They even show the inventory (I'm sure its not exactly up to date) online. See link below.

What you want to do is talk to the fabricator about ballpark figures for the 'levels'. How much he thinks ABOUT per sq ft a low level will cost, vs. mid- vs. highest. Then you can decide if that price difference is $500, or $1000 or $2000, and if the higher levels are in your price range.

Here is a link that might be useful: Elemar Boston

To get a good price on any product you have to get more information on the product. I have done more than 30 kitchens in last three years and have used prefabricated most of the time. My cost is $20 per sq ft installed with colors like uba tuba, black galaxy, and blue pearl. If you cut same out of a slab, the price of raw granite will be less but fabrication will be way more. Generally you are paying more than double going this route. $50 psf is a fair price IMO.
I have never come across a kitchen or bath where I can not use prefabs. very rarely an island need to be cut out of a slab.

To add to the pricing discrepancies, fabricators get different pricing from the stone yards. They negotiate different prices, partly based on how much they buy from them. It is much easier just to buy what the fabricators have on their lots, but of course, choices are better at the wholesale stoneyards

It surprised me when I was shopping that different yards seemed to have different overall slab quality. I had become frustrated after visiting 2 large yards and one small yard (in addition to my fabricators small yard) that I hadn't found anything I liked which was likely to be affordable; making repeat visits, and even having slabs sent from another location, didn't help. When I finally visited a yard just a little further from my house, I found two or three lots which would've been acceptable. Thanks to obtuse pricing, I don't really know if the slabs at the last place were all slightly more expensive, but it is a safe guess that between slab yards the expertise/connections/priorities of purchasing employees vary as much as the expertise of sales employees. Bottom line: shop around!

I'm in the Boston area and also found that prices vary.

There are several places selling the most common granites (ubatuba, santa cecilia, etc) for $30/SF including fabrication. They use the same wholesalers as everyone else and let you pick out your slab as well.